Prosecutors Consider Shoe Bomber Plan

Published 8:00 pm, Sunday, March 3, 2002

Prosecutors in the case of an airline passenger accused of trying to ignite explosives in his shoe said Monday they plan to detonate a similar bomb and show it as evidence during the man's trial.

Judge William Young did not say if he would grant the prosecution's request to show the simulation to the jury. "We'll see," he said during the pretrial hearing.

Richard Reid, 28, a British citizen, has pleaded innocent to the charges against him, which include attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, attempted murder and placing a bomb inside an aircraft. The terrorism-related charges accuse him of being trained in Afghanistan by the al-Qaida terrorist network.

Prosecutors said Reid's plan Dec. 22 was thwarted by passengers and flight attendants who restrained him until the American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami landed in Boston.

During earlier court hearings, prosecutors said the explosives in Reid's sneakers could have blown a hole in the plane's fuselage and killed the 197 people aboard.

Prosecutor Gerard Leone Jr. would not say Monday where the explosives simulation would take place or how they proposed to present it during Reid's trial.

The judge gave prosecutors 60 days to give the defense details of its planned simulation and the names of experts who would testify. He gave the defense another 60 days after that to make similar disclosures to the prosecution.

Defense lawyers Owen Walker and Tamar Birckhead would not say if they planned to oppose it.